observations from life in the sports world & beyond

Day 4/5: Painting the Playground/Matatu to Kiserian

Because of the last two days of rain our Cheerful Special Home playground painting project got delayed. Since we are leaving today for Kiserian we got up early to see how much we could get done before departing.

i was on yellow duty and we got over half the equipment done!

then it was off for my first matatu ride. It’s basically a small van which is kenya’s bus system. We had to grip our belongings with all our might as we switched matatus in Nairobi near river road and headed off towards kiserian, south of Nairobi.

first stop was a visit to kiserian elementary school to present the boys team uniforms, which was my special project

the entire school came out to greet us and sing songs!

presenting… members of the kiserian golden boots FC!

kiserian is a very overwhelming village for the first-timer. there is no garbage system at all, it’s just thrown into the streets or loosely designated areas such as below. donkeys rummage through them first before it is burnt away, which is such a constant that you can’t escape the smell.

kids tend to follow us wherever we walk. we are their village entertainment.

our hosts walked us around the village and down towards the river. this is essentially their quarry where people chip away at the rock by hand for a tough day’s wage.

Special thank you to all the people that donated and sent your love and support. We were able to outfit both the younger and older boys teams with full uniforms, shin guards and shoes:
Flo, Samantha, Laura, Jennae, Arnim, Jessi, Nichole, Jeremy, Alondra, Les, Sian, And my merc brigade: Cindy, Mike, Carol, and Janet! XO!
And thanks to my Chicago Red Stars for the duffels to transport the gear as well as the balls and pinnies.

I’m so grateful to all of you to help make this project happen. I wish I could bottle the joy in all the kids’ faces and send it to you so you’d understand the impact!

Tomorrow I’ll actually be heading out to train the Golden Boots so more to come on that…